Recent series wins show Wedge team's personality

CLEVELAND -- The low point for the Mariners this season was a 10-3 defeat in Houston on April 24 when Seattle lost a series to the last-place Astros and then got an earful from manager Eric Wedge in a fiery postgame speech. The team had fallen to 8-15 -- a half-game out of last place in the American League West.

Since then, Seattle has gone 12-7 heading into Saturday's game against the Indians and pulled itself into a chase for second place in the division with Oakland.

What's changed?

"I think this is what's more normal," Wedge said Saturday morning. "This is more the personality of the club we'd anticipated. I think settling in has been a big part of it. Even [Friday], that was a pretty good ballgame.

"We've got to do a better job with runners in scoring position and take advantage of some opportunities," he said. "But we're playing good baseball, and we're playing good teams. You look at the last six series, it's been about as real as it gets, and we still haven't totally hit our stride yet. So that's a good thing."

After going 0-5-2 in their first seven series of the season, the Mariners are 5-0-1 in their last six series.